‘Family carers in crisis' and need support – Penrose

A call to have action taken on funding for carers has been made this week by the Labour Party spokesperson on Social Protection, Willie Penrose, TD.

Deputy Penrose has called on the government to ring-fence funding for Phase 2 of the National Carers Strategy for the period 2019 to 2022.

“In Ireland today, all home care supports are discretionary and, therefore, the service is a resource rather than needs-led. This equates to a system which is inequitable, inconsistent and flawed,” the Ballynacargy man told the Westmeath Examiner.

Deputy Penrose said that while he understood that a statutory entitlement to home care is coming down the tracks, that was still years away.

“Family carers cannot afford to wait that long; they need support now,” he said.

“Thousands of family carers remain in crisis and they are battling all the time against a system that requires carers’ allowance recipients to provide full-time care; a minimum of 35 hours a week.

“They receive just €16 more than recipients of the Jobseeker’s allowance for doing a minimum of 35 hours per week.

“I am asking the government to invest in home care now. For too long, home care has been underfunded, inconsistent and inequitable, leaving families with little choice but to choose care homes, over home care.”

Deputy Penrose noted that in its pre-budget submission, Family Carers Ireland called for an investment of €102 million in order to increase the number of home support hours by 25%, from €17.09 million to €21.4 million.

“Ireland’s first National Carers Strategy was published in 2012. The strategy has now come to the end of its timeline and I am calling for ring-fenced funding to be provided for Phase 2 of the National Carers’ Strategy for the period 2019 to 2022.

“Family carers are propping up our struggling health service. They save our state €10 billion each year. The question should not be whether we can afford to support them but whether we can afford not to.”